Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Outlaw Star
Gene rang the small, old fashioned bell on the counter as he watched Jim drag Melfina through the various aisles of things. The bell gave a cheery ping as he heard Jim point unseen things out to Melfina.
"Oh wow, check this out Melfina! This is incredible! I've never seen so much rare stuff in one place!" The young genius spoke with barely contained awe. Melfina's quiet giggle was her only response. She was enjoying seeing the normally very mature Jim act like a kid in a candy store for once. Gene saw the two rummaging around a clearance box in the corner of his eye and couldn't help but give a smirk at Jim's wide eyes as he scanned through the stuff inside. A soft click came from a door opening up in the back behind the counter and a voice floated through the air.
"Welcome to Uzumaki Inc., where the guns are hot and the ammo cheap!" It called out. The speaker appeared into view, brushing off his jacket and pants, adjusting some worn out goggles on his head while giving Gene an appraising stare. The brightest mop of blond hair coupled with deep blue eyes really struck Gene since there were rarely any people with those features nowadays, especially since no one else had whisker marks on their cheeks.
"So all this stuff is stolen huh? Pretty gutsy move, kid." Gene's smirk faltered as he noticed the blond's eye twitch.
The goggled blond rolled his eyes and sighed, "Yeah, yeah, it's a terrible slogan but I haven't really had any time to fix it. So..." His voice drifted off as he watched Jim pull out a glowing canister gleefully out of the clearance box. The canister suddenly appeared on the counter as a small glow faded from the young man's hand. "Hey Kid, don't touch this, it has a very unstable energy source and the wrong shake could have blown you to pieces." Jim was still staring in shock at the slightly older teen, wondering how he had taken the object from his hands but soon resumed his browsing.
"Anyway," he continued, "What can I do ya for? I don't get too many customers. You need something done to that gun of yours? Or perhaps a custom weapon for the missus?" He glanced over at Melfina who was staring curiously into a small jar filled with small creatures that were glowing different colors. Gene felt his face heat a little at the statement.
"No, she's not my wife, more along the lines of girlfriend, but that's beside the point." He stared the blond in the eye, "I just want to know, are you Uzumaki Naruto?" The blond returned the gaze with a cautious glance.
"Yeah, that's me, what about it?" His voice had a slight hint of anxiety behind them as he glanced quickly between the three patrons.
Gene put out his hand for a handshake, trying to be as casually formal as possible towards the blond, "The name's Gene Starwind. I've been hired by Tsunade of Konoha Inc. to be your bodyguard for the foreseeable future."
Naruto ignored the hand and crossed his arms in distaste, "Tsunade sent you huh? Why would I need a bodyguard?"
"She says that the Kei pirates are coming after you. How she got the info, I have no idea, but the bastards are a threat no matter what, so you're gonna need my help."
"Damn, must've found out from ero-sennin..." Naruto muttered while thinking aloud. He leveled his gaze back to the red haired man and leaned forward on the counter, "How do I know I can trust you, hmm?"
Gene pulled out the envelope that the buxom blond woman had given him, "Tsunade gave me this letter, also instructing me to take you to meet a man by the name of Jiraiya at Heifong III. Oh, and these are my friends, Jim Hawking and Melfina." Naruto saw that Gene's companions had now joined his side as he took the letter, opening it and quickly scanning it wordlessly. Once finished he gave a small sigh, handing the letter back and opening a side door that appeared out of nowhere.
"Alright, looks like you guys really are my new bodyguards, come on down while I grab a few things." He turned and pointed them towards the door as he disappeared in the back.
Gene drifted towards the door and opened it, a bit surprised to see it open to a rather large workshop filled with so many varieties of gadgets and technologies even he hadn't seen before. Jim's blue eyes suddenly widened even more and he let out a loud "Whoa!" while running excitedly from machine to machine, peering closely at each piece as Gene and Melfina entered slowly behind him. Gene closed the door and noticed that as soon as he did, it faded from the wall like it had never existed. He blinked and shrugged, knowing sometimes it was best to wait for answers.
Walking through the various areas of the workshop, they saw many sketches littering the ground. Ideas that were cast aside or possibly developed into bigger, better things. The layers of sketches drew thicker as the group entered another branch of the workshop and found a ridiculously cluttered desk stacked with what looked like blueprints and odd gadgets whose meaning was lost even on Jim. A small cough echoed in the room and the three turned around as Naruto glided towards them in a small hovering chair with a small grin on his face.
"So, what do ya think?" He said with a hint of pride as he swept his arm in a dramatic gesture. Gene shrugged, Melifna smiled in appreciation, and Jim practically exploded.
"Oh this is so awesome! Did you make all of this stuff? How did you do this? How did you figure out the way to balance the physics or...or..." Gene placed his hand on Jim's head to calm him down.
"Sorry about that. Our Jim here is kind of the tech genius of our crew. He doesn't really get to see so much new technology in one place, so he kinda short circuited coming in here." Gene chuckled softly while ruffling the young boy's hair who soon regained composure and swatted his partner's hand away in annoyance. Naruto gave a smile towards the other boy and stood up out of the chair.
"Hey, it's good to see some other people with a love for technology! Here Jim, give it a spin!" He said cheerfully. Jim looked towards Gene who nodded in agreement. Why not let the kid have some fun? It's not often he met someone around his age that shared in the same interests. Jim approached the chair with an almost ecstatic grin on his face and sat in the floating chair.
"Wow, this is really comfy! It feels like it was made just for me!" The boy exclaimed. "But how do I get it to move?" He said while looking around at the armrests for a button or lever. Naruto's smile grew a bit more as his eyes gleamed with pride.
"That's the best part, just think of a direction or place and 'urge' it that way!"
Jim took a moment to process the instructions as he thought of a place he'd like to go. The chair hummed quietly as it whisked over the air and stopped high on the side wall. Jim smiled triumphantly and shouted to the others down below, "This is so cool! I don't even feel the gravity pulling me back down!"
Naruto ran forward a bit and replied, "It has a very small, built-in gravity generator which both repels it from the ground, keeping it aloft, as well as keeping the user from feeling the side effects whatever direction they might go."
The chair glided softly back onto the ground and Jim waved his arms excitedly at Gene and Melfina, explaining what it was like, while Gene pretended to appear interested and Melfina smiled.
"Looks like Naruto is your new friend and rival, isn't he Jim?" She giggled, not noticing the slight spark that erupted in Jim's eyes as she mentioned the word 'rival.'
"She's right, this is the first time I have met anyone that had the same interest as me. This might be the best job that Gene has gotten us yet!" The boy thought with a grin appearing on his face. Jim's smile lessened as his stomach grumbled noisily. He smiled, embarrassed at the rather loud noise. He looked back at Melfina, trying not to sound too needy when asking, "Hey Melfina, do you think we could get something to eat?"
Melfina blushed a little as her own stomach seemed to rumble in agreement, "Um, sure Jim. Excuse me, Naruto?" The blond glanced over curiously. "Where is your kitchen? I'm going to make us all some lunch," she replied.
Surprise dawned on his face and he looked downward, guiltily replying, "Ah, well, there is no real food at the moment, all I have is just instant ramen," The young teen laughed while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Seeing the woman simply stand there he realized that she didn't know the way and briskly walked past her, motioning the two of them towards the kitchen. Gene on the other hand was thumbing through the layers of blueprints that were splayed across the workbench.
"Castersmith huh? Seems more like a slightly better than average inventor to me. Maybe it's just a title and he doesn't make any Caster items at all?" Gene pondered as he sifted through another pile of sketches. There were various modifications to each one, tiny scribbles noting each component and what it should do in theory and then next to them in big red ink were the faults and mistakes that had occurred through their testing. "The kid is unorganized but pretty damn meticulous when it comes to getting things right. I wonder how many of these things have ever seen the light of day outside of this workshop?" The redhead's attention was caught by an overstuffed notebook in the corner slot of the bench. He thumbed it open and saw rough sketches of something he thought looked familiar but couldn't quite identify, and leafed through the pages until he hit the latest entry. "Looks like this was just written today, jeez, so many attempts to make this thing work. Tsunade really wasn't joking when it was this kid's fault for those couple blackouts earlier today. What is this thing?" Gene's eyes widened a bit as he saw the title: Caster Cannon. He slowly closed the notebook and placed it back in it's slot, thinking over what he had just seen.
"Okay, so the kid really is a Castersmith. A crazy inventive one at that, unlike those two pervs and hottie I met at the hot springs of planet Tenrai. No wonder the Kei Pirates want this guy, he probably has enough firepower or even just ideas for possible weapons in his head that would make any mercenary shit themselves for a taste of this power. It's amazing that the military hasn't jumped on the bandwagon yet, and I hope to god it stays that way." A small hand held an outstretched cup of instant ramen towards him, startling Gene out of his thoughts.
"You okay Gene?" Melfina asked with concern. Gene took the warm cup in his hands and gave a grateful smile.
"Yeah, I'm okay Mel. Thanks for lunch!" He said as he grabbed the chopsticks on top of the lid and slurped down the salty, yet still delicious, food. Quickly finishing and tossing his cup in the trash, Gene called out to the cheery blond, "Hey Naruto, I have a few questions I need to ask you."
Naruto's head popped out from behind the kitchen doorway on the left and he came walking out with his own cups of ramen, noisily finishing one and immediately starting the other with obvious joy. "Ya, wha' ith et?" He said while gulping and slurping loudly. Gene grimaced at the kid's lack of manners but put those thoughts aside as he decided to jump to business.
"Look, I need to know, how much do you know about Casters?" Gene pulled out his own Caster pistol, placing it on the workbench before him. Naruto's gaze shifted to the weapon as he almost dropped his cup in surprise and hurriedly finished it off before replying back, his eyes never leaving the weapon.
"...I know a lot about 'em. I made them for quite a few years of my life, steadily gaining enough knowledge to even crafting my own models after a while." He walked towards the bench and stared at the Caster on his bench. "Man, this Caster looks like shi-.." His voice trailed off as he whirled back towards Gene, "Where did you get this?"
Gene's eyebrows rose at the strange question, "Uh, from my holster right here on my belt." Naruto scowled at the man.
"Idiot, you know what I mean!" He shouted. Jim walked up to the group, sipping the last of his broth and noodles with a content sigh.
"Oh, that?" Jim pointed towards the gun. "I bought that for Gene back around when we first met, since I knew that if we were going to be a jack-of-all-trades business, he was going to need a lot more firepower than something as simple as a regular pistol."
Naruto turned his glare at his new friend, slight anger seeping into his voice, "Where did you buy it?"
Jim held his hands out in front of himself, "I just remember buying it at some seedy downtown black market area. No other shops would let me buy a firearm so I had to look for a less reputable place where all they care about is money. I remember thinking that it was just perfect for Gene since it had power enough for taking on practically anything, and while the ammo was rare I got it for a really low price."
Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself. "Sorry about flying off the handle. This is one of the first prototype models I made back as an apprentice. It was stolen by some thieves one night believing it to be worth millions like my master's work. I was pretty pissed off to say the least. It was the first model that had my own designs and everything. So to see it suddenly here again, that's pretty weird." He let out a small chuckle.
Melfina came to the bench and picked up the weapon gently, "So this was a prototype? It wasn't even fully completed?" She opened the chamber with the gracefulness of an amateur and pointed her sights on some imaginary foe. She giggled and placed it back down on the bench before taking her turn in the grav-chair.
Naruto looked thoughtfully at the gun and picked it up, twisting it around in his hands before pointing out to Gene his small initials 'U.N.' and his personal smith symbol. Hard to believe, but Gene was impressed. "Well, looks like I finally know who made my Caster. Uzumaki Naruto, crazed inventor and Castersmith. What's this symbol anyway?" He pointed towards the small red number nine surrounded several swirls and tiny characters.
Naruto gave a small grin, "That's my insignia! I thought of it myself!"
"What's it mean?" Gene asked. The blond's cheerful smile slipped and he forced a change of subjects.
"Uh, yeah! I forgot to mention, other than my personal technologies, I have been working on some experimental Caster ammo!" His hand glowed briefly as he swiped the air quickly, forming bright blue symbols and shapes Gene had never seen before. A door appeared in the air and Naruto opened it, gesturing the three to walk in, or in Melfina's case, ride in with the chair.
The door closed behind him and Gene turned around to ask what he just did but Naruto held up a hand and said, "No, I'll answer it later on. Come on, if you liked my prototype model, you have to check out the latest that I have been tooling around with." A glint of mischief and something else seemed to flash in his bright blue eyes as he lead them down a long steel hallway, their steps echoing lightly on the polished metal floor. Naruto opened the door at the end, ushering them inside without a word. Bright white lights flared on, forcing everyone's eyes to adjust yet again. They were in what appeared to be a large shooting range. Holographic displays hummed as Naruto powered up the machines, typing in complex algorithms that made Gene's head swim. The blond turned back around and rushed into another back room, returning with a medium sized steel case. He placed it on a nearby table and opened it, letting the three crowd around and stare while he continued working on other projects, trying to keep his ego in check as he listened to the 'oohs' behind him.
Inside the case was a Caster of similar shape and size to Gene's, but it had a polished gold look and was fitted with two barrels and loading chambers. Separated in a single row, a few spaces apart from one another were various Caster rounds. Gene picked up the gun and held it in his hand, pointing it forward at the wall, squinting down the sights with one eye closed. "This is amazing Naruto! This Caster feels so much lighter than mine, despite the fact that it has an extra barrel."
"I learned from the mistakes of my earlier models and eventually found the right combination of alloys and minerals to make a sturdy yet lightweight gun metal." Naruto stared with amusement as Jim and Melfina picked up a few of the Caster rounds. "Those are my some of my most recent successes. They are not on the market since they are a bitch to make, but they are more powerful than pretty much any regular Caster round in my humble opinion." Gene looked at him incredulously.
"You gotta be shitting me," he deadpanned.
"Nope." Naruto walked over and calmly extracted the gun from Gene's unwilling fingers and took out a transparent round, a round filled with a blue liquid, and one filled with a grey haze. "These," He held out his palm with the three shells, "are what I call Chakra Casters." He paused and continued as everyone's attention was on him at the moment. "I imbue these rounds with various techniques that I was taught and seal all of their power inside so when I place them inside and fire them…" He took the liquid filled round and inserted it into one chamber and pointed it at the target in the shooting range, "They release all of that power in one shot like a normal Caster round, but I recently was able to refine the technique, enabling me to retain more energy that what could normally have been accomplished. It might not sound like much, so here is a demonstration." He steadied himself and held the Caster in both hands and pulled the trigger. Something that could only be considered a loud, angry roar reverberated through the air as an immense spiraling dragon made of pure water smashed into the target and hit the wall past it at the far end with a thundering splash. No one said anything for a minute.
"Holy shit." Gene whispered as he stared at the damage done to the dummy target and the far wall. The dummy was ripped off its post and crushed into the wall, staying there from the sheer force of the impact alone. Jim was silently gazing at the other rounds, imagining what other kinds of destructive power could possibly be held within the tiny shells. Melfina had gripped Gene's hand after hearing the roar and Gene pulled her closer to him to comfort her. She was shivering, from fear or the flash of cold that flowed back from the water dragon, he didn't know but he held her close either way.
"Um, are you guys okay?" Naruto asked worriedly. Gene composed himself as best as he could and nodded towards the young inventor. The blond's face was marred by a frown and the feeling of elation he had demonstrating his work was shattered when he saw Melfina's shaking form. "Well, as you can see, I still need to tone down the power a bit. It's why these things are still being tested ya know? I can't have people all of a sudden buying these off the shelves and destroying cities for the hell of it. No, this technology is mine alone and it's not going public. I would only use it if I absolutely had to, for multiple reasons." He stared off into space, thinking about something else. He blinked and put the gun and the other rounds away, locking it up and swiping a few symbols over it. The case glowed in response and he nodded in approval, hefting it and taking it back into storage.
Naruto soon appeared back out and tried to give as cheerful a smile as possible, apologizing to Melfina. "Hey Melfina, I'm sorry if that scared you. I didn't think that it would give off such a loud roar to be honest, I'm sorry." He looked downcast as he swiped his hand through the air once more, creating a door returning them back to his workshop.
"Naruto," Melfina spoke up, recovering from her shock, "It's alright, I mean, you were just demonstrating your achievements, something that you had worked so hard to complete. Don't feel bad, I was just not expecting such a mighty roar to come out of nowhere." She let out a small laugh, visibly cheering up the blond.
"All right! Next time expect the unexpected because that is Uzumaki Naruto's trademark style!" He said with a fox-like grin. Melfina laughed some more, thinking that having him around might not be so bad after all.
Jim had taken over the chair riding this time out and ran it up and over the walls and ceiling for a while before stopping in front of the group and looking over at Naruto. "Hey Naruto," the boy asked cautiously, "What is it exactly that you do that makes you able to summon doorways and items?"
Gene nodded, folding his arms, awaiting an answer, "Yeah, that's been puzzling me this whole time we've been here. It almost seems like magic."
"Is it something like the Taoist magic?" Melfina inquired. Naruto resisted the urge to sigh and knew this was bound to come up.
"It's kind of like Tao magic, but it's a different form of energy and there is no chanting involved. I use chakra, the general life force in everything, and use various seals that I was taught by my master. The seals vary in complexity but they all have different purposes depending on what I have to do. For summoning an item, I find an item I need either in plan view or something recent from my memory and assign it a specific set of seals, one for the mass, one for the general amount of energy required to move it where I need it, and another for location. It's much easier to do something in plain view since I know what it looks like and can give a good guess on how much energy to use plus location usually is easy to consider most times. If it is for something really large however, I can only do it once or twice and I get exhausted. These doors to my various work places are much easier for me to do after several years of practice. The other application is for containing something. It's how I created those Chakra Casters. Took me a few months to just make one of those things. That's about the gist of it." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. Gene had a bit go over his head but still understood the basic concept, Jim was nodding thoughtfully, and Melfina asked for another demonstration.
Naruto decided it would be easiest to show than talk about it. He gathered the energy and concentrated it all on his hands, holding them out in front of the others to show the process. Gathering enough energy he slowly moved his hand through the air, making the necessary symbol and corresponding characters so they left trails in the light that could be seen by the human eye. Melfina gave a small gasp in astonishment and Naruto felt a bit of heat rise to his cheeks in embarrassment as he continued showing the other two symbols required for the door to the front of the shop. The door once again appeared from thin air and he let the energy gradually fade from his hands. Naruto wiped a few small beads of sweat from his brow, giving a tired smile, "Looks like I have pushed myself a bit too much while showing you guys around."
Gene gave the goggled blond a hearty pat on the back and gave his own weary smile, "Hey, we've all had a long day, thanks for showing us around though, good to know you are capable of protecting your own ass if it ever comes down to it. There are a couple other crew members you have to meet before we head over to Heifong III, so come on, they are probably already back waiting for us." Naruto nodded before grabbing his favorite orange mug and quickly dumping the ancient coffee down the sink in the kitchen, a seal shimmering on it as he left it on the counter. Quickly grabbing his notebook from his workbench, he reached for the doorknob to open it when he heard the old bell give its familiar ping. Naruto straightened himself out as best as he could once more, spouting his slogan as he walked through the door.
Before Gene and the others walked through the door, they heard a low voice growl, "Are you the one named Uzumaki Naruto?"
A familiar scoff was heard as the blond replied back impatiently, "Who wants to know? If you've got business with me just tell me already."
The voice answered coldy, "My name is Zabuza, mercenary for hire, and I am here on behalf of the Kei Pirates to collect your head." Gene had already burst through the door and raised his caster as a large hooded figure threw back his cloak to reveal an extremely large gun, no, make that a damn cannon. He hefted it with the ease of any skilled mercenary and a smile formed underneath the bandages covering the lower half of his head. The crazed look in his eyes appeared to grow darker as the gun, Kubikiri Houchou, Gene noticed absently, began to charge with an unearthly green light. A flash went off accompanied by a roaring blast as Gene stood guard in front of Naruto and activated his light shield gloves to full power while the blond stared as the blast knocked both of them into each other to crash into a heap behind the counter.
"Damn, what kind of fucking gun is that?" Gene thought, wincing at the burning pain as his gloves were destroyed by that single round.
Zabuza sneered and pointed the gun downwards upon them but a sudden whack was heard and the mercenary's eyes rolled backwards as he collapsed onto the counter unconscious. Jim and Melfina rushed through the door as Gene and Naruto stood up shakily.
"Gene, Naruto, are you two alright?" Melfina asked, looking them over for any injuries.
"Yeah, we're okay Mel. My gloves are busted but the fact that they survived that bastard's cannon is testament to their ability." Gene glanced over to Naruto who rubbed his head and hissed at the large bump that had started to form.
"Gene, are you okay?" A calm, cool, feminine voice asked. Gene finally saw his savior, the infamous assassin 'Twilight' Suzuka, holding her bokken in her steady grasp. She was a tall and very slender woman with pale skin, dark brown eyes, and long black hair tied into a ponytail, the rest of her hair being held back by a red headband. She had a rather flawless white kimono with a red trim, an orange shawl draped on her shoulders, and had bandages wrapped all over her torso. She gave a tiny smile and nodded towards the now unconscious mercenary. "Aisha and I saw this creep stalking around your headquarters, and knowing your habit of making such wonderful friends, we followed him around until we found you guys." The woman pushed a small strand of hair out of her eyes and called over her shoulder, "Aisha, no need to ambush, come on in and throw this guy outside."
The Ctarl Ctarl named Aisha ClanClan popped out from behind the aisles of merchandise and gave a mock salute to Suzuka, "Aye Aye, Captain!" She said with a fake gruff growl. She was a rather buxom tan skinned woman with green eyes and yellowish-white hair tied into a long braided ponytail that reached down near her knees with a gold hoop at the end. She wore a green mini skirt and brown blouse and had long brown cat ears. The protruding ears were what caught Naruto's attention first. He pointed at her and began to stammer, shaking even harder than before his meeting with Zabuza.
"C-C-C-C-Cat! Get away from me!" He cried out, quickly rushing back into his workshop leaving a stunned Aisha behind as Gene, Melfina and Jim attempted to get him back outside.
Aisha looked around confusedly and pointed to herself, "Wha? What did I do?"
A/N: Okay, done with finals at last so hopefully updates like this will be a bit more common! Once again thanks to my beta for the immense help in editing. Let me know what you guys think so far!